This month Total Phase has two new developments to share in the USB space about the new Type-C and Power Delivery technologies.

First, Total Phase recently attended the USB-IF Workshop in Portland, Oregon. At this “plugfest” we observed improved product behavior during testing as compared to the last event held, which was just 3 months ago. Our tests covered a wide range of products including PD silicon, charging adapters, cameras, cables and more. We witnessed some operational failures, which are common in the early development phases, but overall there was great improvement!

	Figure 1: USB Power Delivery Analyzer	Figure 2: Data Center Protocol Analysis Software

Here’s a list of some of the exciting new devices and scenarios we had the chance to test with our USB Power Delivery Analyzer (which by the way, was recently enhanced with our latest version of Data Center Software):

• SOP transactions as sources queried active cables; those cables responded with their capabilities
• SOP transactions that described fast, error free contracts between power sources and sinks (with and without the use of e-marked cables)
• Power role swaps and data role swaps
• Vendor defined messages containing USB data and video capabilities
• USB power delivery fast charging devices – we saw contacts up to 20 volts and 5 amps contracts
• USB Type-C cell phones (principally coming from Europe and Asia at this point)

It was great having a sneak peak into these product developments - we should see exciting new USB functionality in the consumer market soon!

Our second new development was recently introduced -  the Current/Voltage Monitor feature in our Data Center Software. You can now the measure the current and voltage of the signal lines in the USB Type-C connector and correlate those in real-time to the captured PD data. Check out this new feature and see how easy it is to use the USB Power Delivery Analyzer in this 3-minute video:

Following our introduction of the Current/Voltage Monitor, we answered some questions about interpreting the graphs. The complete summary can be viewed in our knowledge base article -  Voltage and Current Measurements with the USB PD Analyzer.

Want to learn more about how we can help with your current project? Don’t hesitate to write to us at sales@totalphase.com.